Early in the season, the Milford Legion team couldn’t put it all together.

Post 59 lost two games in a row and struggled to find the clutch hit or the needed pitching performance.

In a six-game winning streak, Post 59 has put an end to any questions about its ability to come through when necessary.

On Saturday afternoon at Shrewsbury High School, Post 59 took down Shrewsbury Post 397 in Zone 4 action 5-2, winning its sixth straight game and putting itself in good position to qualify for the National Bound tournament next Saturday.

The top two teams in the zone qualify for a one-game playoff July 6 to determine who moves on. At 9-2 (8-2 in Zone 4), Post 59 is in second place with four games left, trailing only East Side (9-2 in the zone). Leominster was in third place at 8-3 in Zone 4 entering Saturday night’s game with Grafton Hill.

Post 59’s batters once again came through with runners on base Saturday.

"A big key today was timely hitting," Milford manager Brian Macchi said. "Getting runs in when we had guys in scoring position, we’ve really tried to stress the importance of situational hitting and the guys are coming through in some big spots."

Ian Strom had the game-winning single in the top half of the sixth inning, driving in Dan Mantoni to break a 2-2 tie. JJ Branch added a sacrifice fly to put Post 59 up 4-2 on Shrewsbury (3-7, 3-6) and Brendan Pounds tripled in the top of the seventh and then scored on a wild pitch.

"I was seeing the ball well all day, getting some good swings on it but had nothing to show for it," Strom said. "At that point we really needed a run and I just didn’t want to let the opportunity go to waste. I got a good pitch to hit and just did what I could with it."

On the mound, Mike Tracy struggled a bit early for Milford, but ended up going five innings on 84 pitches. Tracy gave up both runs on six hits while striking out five and walking three.

"I just wasn’t getting ahead of batters early on, had a few walks and was just a little wild," Tracy said. "The more I got into the game the more I started feeling confident in my pitches and throwing more strikes. It doesn’t hurt to have an offense behind you that you know more times than not is going to get some runs for you. It’s a huge boost as a pitcher."

Tied 2-2 with one out in the top of the sixth inning, Mantoni and Matt Ferrelli both drew walks off Shrewsbury starter Jay Reynolds. Strom then stepped to the plate and made Reynolds pay for a pitch he left up in the zone, driving a single to right that scored Mantoni and moved Ferrelli to third. Branch drove in Ferrelli with his sacrifice fly to put Post 59 up 4-2.

Page 2 of 2 - Tracy came back out to start the bottom of the sixth but gave up a leadoff single to Billy Theis, prompting Macchi to bring in Kevin Martinis in relief. Martinis struck out two batters with a walk sandwiched in-between, before inducing an inning-ending groundout. After Pounds tripled and scored his run in the top half of the seventh, David Sampson came on to close things down for Milford in the bottom half, striking out two, walking one and finally getting a pop out to end the game.

"Sampson and Martinis have been excellent for us in relief this season," Macchi said. "Today worked out just how we wanted it to and that’s big when you have guys who can come in late and shut the door."

Post 59 took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Mantoni that scored Andrew McMillan until Shrewsbury went up 2-1 in the bottom of the second.

A Branch RBI groundout in the top of the fourth inning that scored Ferrelli made it 2-2, setting up the late-inning dramatics.